And the soldiers also asked him, saying: And what shall we do? And he said to them: Do violence to no man, neither calumniate any man; and be content with your pay. (Luke 3:14)
Historical Context
According to the prophets of nonviolence fundamentalism, those who place their trust in Holy Mother Church are not true followers of Jesus. These rebellious fundamentalists wave their ancient banner with a trail of warring venom.[1] The nonviolence fundamentalist judges Sacred Scripture to be a personalized calling to the sword of Christ. This self-appointed prophet is determined to set daughter against Mother.
Proponents of nonviolent fundamentalism recast Church history with romanticized revisionism, branding it with their own mark of genuine Christianity. They depict the Catholic Church as the notorious harlot of Babylon, a creation of the Constantine-dominated Council of Nicaea. These so-called Nicene Creed Catholics are portrayed as adherents of a deceitful church, positioned as adversaries to the prophets’ radical Jesus. Within this nonviolent fundamentalist church, the world’s salvation is seen as a carousel of self-congratulatory illusion.
Hippolytus and Apostolic Tradition
The anti-Catholic fundamentalist points to the only writing from a non-apostate that seems to explicitly affirm the assumption that every single Christian from the first three centuries was a nonviolent fundamentalist. This writing is decreed to be “the most important writing outside of the New Testament.”[2] On the Apostolic Tradition was written by Hippolytus. It was primarily a document of liturgical instruction, produced and circulated in 215 A.D., but the following passage offers a tinkling delight for the captivated ears of nonviolent rebellion:
“A soldier in command must be told not to kill people; if he is ordered so to do, he shall not carry it out. Nor should he take the oath. If he will not agree, he should be rejected. Anyone who has the power of the sword, or who is a civil magistrate wearing the purple, should desist, or he should be rejected. If a catechumen or a believer wishes to become a soldier they should be rejected, for they have despised God.”
Hippolytus, On the Apostolic Tradition, 16, 215 A.D.
With a diligent examination of the text, we may see that a soldier is prohibited from murder and from pledging an idolatrous oath. The power of persecution is the power of the sword. This is a corrupting power from hell. If a catechumen has the power of the sword, he should desist from this evil corruption. To become a soldier required the idolatrous oath. Hence, just as a soldier was expected to refrain from repeating the idolatrous oath when that soldier became a catechumen, so too was a catechumen expected to refrain from the idolatrous oath required for entrance into military service. If an idolatrous oath were not required to become a soldier, then becoming a soldier would be potentially acceptable. If certain conditions are met, a Christian may be a soldier.
A fevered reading of Apostolic Tradition concludes that the tradition of the Apostles prohibited a Christian from being a soldier. When we consider the fact that Saints Peter and Paul contradicted such restrictions for both Cornelius[4] and the guard at Philippi[5], then we may conclude that the author of On the Apostolic Tradition was either an exceptional traditionalist who proposed a restriction that was more authentically Christian than Saints Peter and Paul, or, that the private judgment of the self-appointed prophet is false.
There is much more to learn from Hippolytus than the deceptive prophet intends to teach. Marcellino D’Ambrosio, in his work entitled: When the Church Was Young, notes that Hippolytus “let us know in the first paragraph of the work that some ignorant men (read ‘the pope and his advisors’) were courting apostasy and that the Roman church was in danger of moving beyond the apostolic tradition.” D’Ambrosio goes on to describe Hippolytus as, “an extreme ‘traditionalist’ in liturgy as well as in doctrine and morals.”[6] On the Apostolic Tradition was circulated throughout the Church to maintain the tradition that Hippolytus judged to be apostolic. Eventually, this effort would prove to be an undeniable contention against Pope Zephyrinus and the Pope’s chief Deacon, Callistus:
“If there was any leader whom Hippolytus trusted less than Pope Zephyrinus, it was the pope’s chief deacon, Callistus. So when the pope passed away, and Callistus was elected as his successor, Hippolytus was horrified. He gathered his fans around him, managed to get himself consecrated bishop, and became the first anti-pope in history. Callistus died, another pope came and went, and Hippolytus persisted in schism.”[7]
The Wisdom of God’s Divine Providence has the Power to Make the Proud Humble
“Nothing, however, brings people together more than a common enemy. A new emperor took over, Maximinus Thrax, who initiated measures against the leaders of the Church. He couldn’t care less about schisms and who was the true bishop of Rome. He simply sent both Hippolytus and Pope Pontianus to Sardinia, known as the ‘island of death,’ to die in the mines. Thus, the pope and anti-pope found reconciliation in suffering. They both decided to resign to open up the way for a new pope and a reunification of the Church of Rome. The abject conditions at the mines had their intended effect. The new pope, Fabian, had the bodies of Hippolytus and Pontianus brought back to Rome and, on the very same day, gave those former adversaries a martyr’s funeral. The Church of Rome preserved no memory of Hippolytus’s schism or his mean-spirited criticism of Fabian’s predecessors. The Church instead chose to remember only what was noble and good of Hippolytus’s legacy and forget about the rest. Chief among those things was the beautiful anaphora that he provided as a model. If you go to a Latin-rite church for Mass and the priest selects Eucharistic Prayer II, you will still hear the ancient words of Saint Hippolytus.”
Marcellino D’Ambrosio, When the Church Was Young, p. 138.
Saint Hippolytus awakens our cynical souls. When we allow God to heal our evil, we may hear the folly of man, know God’s mercy, and gratefully see the beauty of Holy Mother Church. If man, apart from God, seeks to be the answer to evil, then the problem will continue.
The first two thousand years of the Catholic Church are filled with teachings about the nonviolent love of Christ. The Church’s first two millennia are also filled with teachings on the moral boundaries of violence. Holy Mother Church can respect the good duty of guardianship[9] while championing the true peace of Christ:
“‘Respect for and development of human life require peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is the tranquility of order.’ Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity.
Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic ‘Prince of Peace.’ By the blood of his Cross, ‘in his own person he killed the hostility,’ he reconciled men with God and made his Church the sacrament of the unity of the human race and of its union with God. ‘He is our peace.’ He has declared: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’”
Catechism of the Catholic Church #2304, #2305
Multiple ancient sources attest to Christian soldiers who fought under Marcus Aurelius’s leadership. The Twelfth Legion of the Roman army became known as the Thundering Legion due to a miraculous thunderstorm during a 174 A.D. battle against Quadi forces.
Tertullian, founder of Latin Christianity and a prominent hero for the nonviolence fundamentalism sect, pointed to the Thundering Legion as evidence for the truth, goodness, and beauty of the Christian faith:
“Marcus Aurelius also, in his expedition to Germany, by the prayers his Christian soldiers offered to God, got rain in that well-known thirst. When have our kneelings and our fastings been put away, not droughts? At times like these, moreover, the people crying to the God of gods, the alone Omnipotent, under the name of Jupiter, have borne witness to our God.”[11]
Second and third-century gravestones note the Christian identity of buried soldiers.[12] Along with gravestones, Christian military service was unearthed with the discovery of the oldest known church in the Holy Land. An ancient church in Megiddo, dated around 230 A.D., contains two significant inscriptions. The inscription on the altar reads, “The God-loving Akeptous has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial.” This Christian place of worship also bears an inscription that reads, “Gaianus, also called Porphyrius, centurion, our brother, has made the pavement at his own expense as an act of liberality. Brutius carried out the work.” At the time that this ancient church was built, Megiddo was a Roman military camp.[13] It was not unique for a pre-Constantine Roman warrior to join the ranks of God’s army.
Christian soldiers eventually became martyrs because they were not willing to dishonor Christ or kill noncombatants. One of the most remarkable martyrdoms of Christian soldiers was the Roman Legion that hailed from Thebes. They proved their moral courage by refusing to comply with sinful orders. These loyal soldiers were not willing to slaughter noncombatants, nor were they willing to betray God with idolatry. These Christian soldiers served the military and Christ honorably. In 287 A.D., a battalion of Christian warriors led by Saint Maurice united in Christ’s fearless love willingly laid down their lives as a final witness of allegiance to their truest King.[14] Their martyrdom is joined to the redemptive suffering that all Christians are called to. Christian soldiers, faithful slaves, and penitent Catholics know this calling well.
The Roman soldiers of Sebaste do not make the pre-Constantine cut-off, but their 320 A.D. martyrdom is so inspiring that they merit an honorable mention. These courageous martyrs were properly memorialized in the homilies of Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory of Nyssa.[15] Sober minds remember it was in 313 A.D. when Constantine legalized Christianity with the Edict of Milan. The forty martyrs of Sebaste present an inconvenient challenge to the hateful “Constantinian alteration”[16] slur against the Holy Mother Church. A slur that is common among enemies of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
Obstinate vipers work towards the destruction of Holy Mother Church. Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy and his “traditionalist”[17] devotees belong to this ancient, post-conciliar hostility:
“Since the time of Constantine, a Christian who commits an act of violence is just as likely to call that evil ‘good,’ and to be part of a Church that does the same.”
Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Christian Just War Theory: The Logic of Deceit, 9.5
The nonviolence fundamentalism prophet harbors a mutinous end to justify maudlin portrayals of authentic Christianity. This hateful enmity against the Bride of Christ is pleasant snake oil for the malaise of prickly ears:
“[The] 1700-year history of atrocities and patent evils for which that same Church is clearly responsible—from the Crusades and the Inquisition to the Holocaust. No single identifiable group in history over the last 1700 years is responsible for more terror, violence, and bloodshed than that group that calls itself Christian.”[19]
Father McCarthy attempts to offer profound insight by weaving a pretentious view of evolution with his tangential judgment of Sacred Scripture. Empty premises lead to empty conclusions:
“Humanity, since evolving from the non-ethical (no knowledge of good and evil,) non-God-aware consciousness of its animal ancestors, has with only a few isolated exceptions worshiped, served, placated and been terrorized by a God or gods of homicidal violence. Why this is so is not known. Perhaps the transition from a fully animal consciousness to a fully human consciousness is as yet incomplete. Perhaps the approximately 10,000 generations that have passed since Homo sapiens came on stage are not enough time for this relatively new species to get beyond imitating and nurturing the violent survival techniques of its pre-human past. Perhaps this inability fosters in a God-aware creature the need to create God in the image and likeness of what the creature is seemingly hermetically trapped in at the moment. Perhaps this inability to thus far break the cycle of imitative violence motivates an ethically conscious creature to call the destruction of its own species good. But again, it is not at all clear how humanity became almost universally committed to a violent theism. What is clear is that Jesus confronts this idea of God head-on and rejects it as emphatically as is humanly possible: He proclaims its opposite unequivocally: ‘Love your enemies.’ He refuses to live according to its demands: ‘Put up your sword.’ He enters into death not with fangs bared but with love for those with fangs bared: ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do.’ Jesus, the Christ, is the mystery within the mystery of existence which offers to the human being and to humanity a choice to imitate its violent animal ancestors or a choice to imitate its Nonviolent Divine Ancestor.”
Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Christian Just War Theory: The Logic of Deceit, 3.9
Modern Interpretations and Criticisms
It is Father McCarthy’s faith in evolution that allows him to remain marginally Catholic. The inauthentic Christians who listen to the teachings of the Catholic Church have chosen to return to the origin of their species. They are devolved animals who reject the clear teachings of authentic Christianity. The Church was still pure during the first three hundred years of Christianity. When the church resembled the pure church of Father McCarthy. After Constantine, the Catholic Church became “Constantinian Christianity.”[21] Evolution allows us to imagine the realization of the world we want to live in. Eventually, the Catholic Church will evolve to accept the dogmas of Father McCarthy’s nonviolent fundamentalism. This illogical fantasy is authentic Christianity, according to Father McCarthy, but undoubtedly not authentic Catholicism.
The Christian Church of the first three hundred years and beyond has consistently rejected the demonic deception of evolution.[22] The scientific theory of evolution is neither an empirical observation nor an enlightened paradigm. The Apostolic Church does not share Father McCarthy’s bent towards a revolutionary myth[23] of “a long evolutionary process.”[24] Nevertheless, the exceptional traditionalist abhors the Credo church and is confident that the evolutionary process will eventually triumph. Authentic Christianity will make a name for itself as it reaches the clouds of paradise.
Father McCarthy points to what he declares are Christ’s requirements for Christians to build a new, external, universal world. They must build this utopic Christendom with the sacrament of nonviolence fundamentalism:
“But for the Christian to be what he or she is created to be, he or she must live by Christ’s vision of truth. This can only be done by putting on the mind of Christ and being obedient to its vision of the means required to build a new world—internally and externally, for everyone and forever…..
The mind of Christ knows that violence is a ‘dis-grace,’ and that all who prepare for it and participate in it dis-grace themselves, dis-grace humanity, and dis-grace creation. For the mind of Christ is certain that violence is sacrilege—that the human person is the Temple of the Holy in this world and that therefore every act of violence, legal or illegal, is an act of desecration. Homicidal violence is the maximal anti-sacrament in history. It always proceeds from a mind united with the mind of an anti-Christ.”
Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Christian Just War Theory: The Logic of Deceit, 9.14
Disdain for Credo Catholics soothes the ears of anti-Catholic fundamentalists. The claws of deceitful history, lazy philosophy, and heretical theology gratify these ears. The right of private judgment sharpens their instruments of hate with grandiose exaltation hidden behind the great and terrible curtain of humility. Pay no attention to the man behind that curtain.
The galling question endures: What happens when the principle of nonviolence fundamentalism stands before the face of reality?
What should you do if you are the only person standing between the kidnapping of a neighbor’s child? If the ethical principle of nonviolence holds true, then what you should do is practice nonviolent resistance, even if that results in the child being kidnapped. The result shouldn’t dictate the principle. The result is incidental to the principle. If the principle only allows for a violent answer in our conflict with evil, then the principle is fixed on violent fundamentalism. If the principle only provides for a nonviolent answer in our conflict with evil, then the principle is fixed on nonviolent fundamentalism. The Catholic principle allows for both violent and nonviolent responses to prevent the immediate kidnapping of a neighbor’s child.
A person who kidnaps a child with an evil intent to scandalize that child is an enemy of God. God said that a violent execution would be better for such a criminal than what eternity has in store. God will be the one who sends that person to everlasting torment. In spite of this reality, any violent response to interfere with the kidnapping of this child is judged guilty of disloyalty to the nonviolent fundamentalism gospel of the nonviolent fundamentalist Jesus. Thank God, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church offers more understanding than the church of nonviolence fundamentalism.
A sincere Christian suffers violence, both when harming others with violence and when being harmed by violence. Violence should not be enjoyable. The eternal punishment, which is far worse than a violent death penalty, exists according to the will of God. It is held in existence by the Love of God. God is not a nonviolence fundamentalist. God is merciful and just. God has given us a Holy Mother Church to impart His mercy and justice. The holiness of God lives in the righteous guardianship of children, as it lives in our blessed liberation from the death penalty. The deposit of faith that the Holy Mother Church hands to us exists in the present, apart from the fundamentalism of extreme traditionalists. To receive this essential nourishment from the Holy Mother Church, we must surrender our hearts to the substantial meekness of Christ the King.
The lie of nonviolent fundamentalism appears to be good to eat, fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold. Those who an enmity-filled wolf fools are attached to the sin of their own enmity. Their non-violence resembles the nothing that Saint Paul warned of in his first epistle to the Corinthians.[26] Hopefully, extreme traditionalists will eventually wake up from their proud slumber and keep a closer watch on the temptations of the deceiver: “For God doth know that when you follow your private judgment in good conscience, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall know good and evil.” The ancient serpent will tempt the warmonger with a war that tears apart the body of Christ and will tempt the nonviolent fundamentalist with a nonviolence that attacks Christ’s Bride.
Those who have approached the recreant end of this broad and easy road are able to repent and return home to the Church that God intends for their salvation:[27]
“Whoever breaks with the Church and enters on an adulterous union, cuts himself off from the promises made to the Church; and he who has turned his back on the Church of Christ shall not come to the rewards of Christ: he is an alien, a worldling, an enemy. You cannot have God for your Father if you have not the Church for your mother. If there was escape for anyone who was outside the ark of Noe, there is escape too for one who is found to be outside the Church. Our Lord warns us when He says: ‘He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth.’ Whoever breaks the peace and harmony of Christ acts against Christ; whoever gathers elsewhere than in the Church, scatters the Church of Christ. Our Lord says: ‘I and the Father are One’; and again, of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit it is written: And the three are One. Does anyone think then that this oneness, which derives from the stability of God and is welded together after the celestial pattern, can be sundered in the Church and divided by the clash of discordant wills? If a man does not keep this unity, he is not keeping the law of God; he has lost his faith about Father and Son, he has lost his life and his soul.”
Saint Cyprian of Carthage, The Unity of the Church, Chapter 6, 251 A.D.
War is a palpable manifestation of hell—a separation of darkness from light. Evil is chosen rather than union with God. The temporal consequences of war are spiritual conflicts made visible. These symptoms are the rotten fruits that fall from the poisonous tree of discord.
The Christian martyrs of the early Church, soldiers and civilians alike are the venerable heroes of the Catholic faith. Redemptive suffering in Christ will forever be at the heart of Catholicism, which is the fullness of truth. The truth of Sacred Scripture is not opposed to the truth of Sacred Tradition. Both belong to the Word of God. The Church is forever bound to the fulfillment of Christ.[29]
Seek the face of God, and you will find Holy Mother Church. As a beloved disciple of Christ, behold her. Be true to her. Love her. See her within the gaze of angles, in awe and wonder.[30]
ENDNOTES
[1] Apocalypse 12:17
[2] Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Behold The Lamb – Part 5 – The Church: A Fold of Lambs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pycp62GRQ4I
[3] Hippolytus, On the Apostolic Tradition, 16, 215 A.D.
[4] Acts 10
[5] Acts 16:25-40
[6] Marcellino D’Ambrosio, When the Church Was Young, p. 127.
[7] Marcellino D’Ambrosio, When the Church Was Young, p. 138.
[8] Marcellino D’Ambrosio, When the Church Was Young, p. 138.
[9] Genesis 2:15, 3:24 *The cherubim kept what man failed to keep (shamar: “to keep”, “to guard”).
[10] Catechism of the Catholic Church #2304, #2305
[11] Tertullian, To Scapula, Chapter 4, 212 A.D.
[12] John Helgoland, “Christians and the Roman Army A.D. 173-337”, Church History, 1974;43(2):161.
[13] Vassilios Tzaferis, “Inscribed ‘To God Jesus Christ’”, Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2007, https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/inscribed-to-god-jesus-christ/
[14] The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7, “Theban Legion”, https://ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/collection/cce/id/1821/
[15] Leemans, Mayer, Allen and Dehandschutter, Let Us Die That We May Live, pp.67-76, 91-107.
[16] Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, The Church and War discussed by Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Gospel Nonviolence, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpzXK3Y5e1U
[17] Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Who Was Joan of Arc?, Catholics Against Militarism, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pngq4SS4Ucw
[18] Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Christian Just War Theory: The Logic of Deceit, 9.5
[19] Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Christian Just War Theory: The Logic of Deceit, 9.6
[20] Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Christian Just War Theory: The Logic of Deceit, 3.9
[21] Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Christian Just War Theory: The Logic of Deceit, 9.19
[22] https://kolbecenter.org
[23] Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, The Church and War discussed by Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Gospel Nonviolence, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpzXK3Y5e1U
[24] Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Q & A on Christian Just War Theory and Gospel Nonviolence: What about violence in the Old Testament?, Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3JOGbYb-dg
[25] Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, Christian Just War Theory: The Logic of Deceit, 9.14
[26] 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
[27] John 20:21-23
[28] Saint Cyprian of Carthage, The Unity of the Church, Chapter 6, 251 A.D.
[29] Colossians 1:24
[30] 1 Peter 1:12; Ephesians 3:9-10
